The orders, officially decided on January 30, went to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. and Global Military Products Inc. and came amid worries that Ukraine was fast depleting the stockpiles of artillery shells from the United States and other allies.
Deliveries of the new ammunition are scheduled to begin in March of this year, the Army said in a statement.
The contract is funded by the Pentagon's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Ukraine and Russia have fired huge amounts of artillery munitions at each other since the Russian invasion began almost a year ago.
In November a US official said Russian forces were firing about 20,000 artillery rounds a day.
Ukraine's rate was between 4,000 and 7,000 rounds per day -- faster than allied Western manufacturers can produce to keep pace.
The rates have plunged since then, as the winter set in and both sides face shortages and conserve ammunition.
"The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions, and depleting allied stockpiles," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.
"The current rate of Ukraine's ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain," he said.
Ukraine's allies work to keep arms flowing
Brussels (AFP) Feb 15, 2023 -
Ukraine's Western backers will meet for a second day on Wednesday looking to speed up deliveries of ammunition and arms to Kyiv, which is also demanding fighter jets.
After securing commitments for tanks, air defences and precision missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has doubled down on his plea for Western aircraft.
But allies meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels remained focused on ensuring his forces have the ammunition, armoured vehicles and air defences they need on the ground to push back renewed Russian offensives.
"We will provide the Ukrainians with the means to hold out and advance during the spring counter-offensive," said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He mentioned artillery, anti-aircraft defences and armour, but not combat aircraft.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said "the issue of air defence and the issue of ammunition resupply are much more important at the moment than the discussion about combat aircraft".
His Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov agreed that the priorities were to protect his country's skies, bolster promised tank supplies and ensure ammunition stocks.
"Tomorrow's program is just as busy," Reznikov said on Facebook on Tuesday evening. "We will devote more time to tanks."
Ukraine's Western supporters -- spearheaded by the United States -- have already supplied billions of dollars in arms to help Kyiv hold Moscow back.
Now, just under a year into the war, NATO says Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be starting a broader new offensive in east Ukraine.
"We see Russia introducing a number of new troops to the battlefield. Many of those troops are ill-trained and ill-equipped, and so their casualty rate has been really high," Austin said.
He said Ukraine was looking to turn the tide on the battlefield to gain momentum, and that he expected Kyiv's forces to launch their own counter-offensive in the spring.
- Bakhmut 'meat grinder' -
On the ground in eastern Ukraine, an AFP team heard heavy outgoing artillery fire towards Russian lines around the city of Bakhmut, the main target for Moscow's attacks.
Ukrainian officials have recently restricted access to the area for aid workers, sparking speculation Kyiv's forces could be getting ready to withdraw after a gruelling months-long battle.
But the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said the fight for the symbolic prize was far from over as Ukraine continued to defend house to house, despite claimed Russian gains in nearby villages.
"Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working," Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
President Zelensky said the situation on the front line, especially in eastern Ukraine, "remains extremely difficult".
"It is literally a battle for every metre of Ukrainian land," he said in his evening address.
The fighting is consuming vast quantities of ammunition, straining stockpiles and industries on both sides of the confrontation.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has warned that Kyiv's current rate of expenditure was "many times higher" than the output in NATO countries.
Allies continue to raid their shelves for the rounds -- especially 155-millimetre shells -- that Ukraine is firing by the thousand each day.
NATO is scrambling to get its factories to pump out more, and allies are eyeing plans for joint weapons purchases, higher defence spending and longer-term contracts.
Pistorius said Berlin had signed a deal with manufacturer Rheinmetall to restart production of ammunition for Gepard air defence guns sent to Ukraine.
France and Australia also announced they would produce 155mm artillery together, while the Pentagon announced a $552 million contract with two arms companies to produce 155mm shells for Kyiv. The first US deliveries are expected in March.
Norway's government became the latest to join a group of nations promising Leopard 2 tanks, offering eight vehicles.
- No talk of jets yet -
Zelensky issued a powerful call during a trip to London, Paris and Brussels last week for NATO members to send fighter planes and longer-range missiles.
The Ukrainian leader won a commitment from Britain to train pilots but did not get any firm promises that his forces would get Western planes.
But a senior US official said that sending jets was "not something we're talking about around that table, right now, today".
Slovakia has said it is willing to discuss sending Soviet MIG-29 planes to help replace losses to Ukraine's current stocks.
Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren said Kyiv had requested US-made F-16 jets from the Netherlands.
From pistols to tanks: how the West armed Ukraine
Paris (AFP) Feb 14, 2023 -
Since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, the West has delivered ever more powerful weapons to Kyiv, evolving in line with the situation on the battlefield.
Here is how the weapon supplies have developed:
- Invasion: defensive weapons -
No sooner had Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 than the West started arms deliveries to its ally.
Between February and March, Ukraine received more than 40,000 small arms and light weapons (pistols, rifles, submachine guns), 17,000 shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles (Manpads), as well as 25,000 helmets and 30,000 bulletproof vests, according to Germany's Kiel Institute, which tracks weapons promised and delivered to Ukraine.
Greece, for example, sent 20,000 AK-47 rifles, the United States 6,000 Manpads, 5,000 Colt M4 rifles and 2,000 Javelin portable anti-tank missiles.
Sweden for its part contributed 10,000 Manpads, the Czech Republic 5,000 of its Vz58 assault rifles and 3,200 of its Vz59 machine guns.
These weapons and equipment are easy to ship, receive and deploy in an emergency.
- Donbas: howitzers and rocket launchers -
After Ukrainian troops put up fierce resistance in Kyiv and the second city Kharkiv, the Russian army backed off in late March to focus on the east and south.
With a major battle looming for the eastern Donbas region, the West began delivering artillery pieces, including howitzers and rocket launchers that could hit behind enemy lines, destroying ammunition stocks and disrupting Russian supply lines.
By the autumn, 321 howitzers had been delivered, including 18 French Caesars, along with 120 infantry vehicles, 49 multiple rocket launchers, 24 attack helicopters, more than 1,000 US drones and 280 Soviet-built tanks, sent mainly by Ukraine's neighbour Poland.
- Air strikes: surface-to-air missiles -
Despite its retreat to the east and south, Russia continued to pound cities across the country with missiles and, later, explosive drones, in a bid to wipe out Ukraine's energy infrastructure and destroy morale.
Kyiv asked for missile defence systems to counter the threat. The United States provided eight, the United Kingdom six, Spain four and Germany one.
In December, Washington agreed to deliver its Patriot missiles, considered one of the best air defence systems in the world.
- Trench warfare: modern tanks -
Over the past few months, the war in Ukraine has descended into a war of attrition in the trenches in the east.
Russian forces have ramped up their offensive on the Donetsk town of Bakhmut, at the centre of the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Zelensky's appeals to the West to send state-of-the-art tanks so that Kyiv can go on the offensive again were finally heard in January.
The United Kingdom was first off the mark, promising 14 of its Challenger 2 battle tanks.
After strenuous lobbying by Zelensky, Germany later agreed to provide 14 of its Leopard tanks, considered among the best in the world, and gave the green light for other countries to also redeploy some of their stocks of Leopards.
Germany has also pledged at least 100 older Leopard 1 tanks while the United States said it would send 31 of its Abrams tanks.
It could be a game changer for Ukraine, which up to now relied on ageing Soviet models.
But the arms race may not end there. Poland has said it would be ready to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, if NATO members were in agreement.
Related Links
The latest in Military Technology for the 21st century at SpaceWar.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
